Billionaire Buffett partner's son backs Faulconer

Union foe antes up in San Diego mayor's fundraising derby

Charles Thomas Munger, Jr., son of a wealthy sideman to Omaha, Nebraska, billionaire Warren Buffett, has become the latest super-rich American to wade into the battle for San Diego mayor, cutting a $1000 check for Republican city councilman Kevin Faulconer yesterday, December 18, according to a disclosure filing posted online by the California secretary of state's office.

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Last year, Munger, Jr., who is based in Palo Alto, spent $10 million in unsuccessful efforts to pass Proposition 32, which would have barred union dues from being used in politics, and to defeat Proposition 30, Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown's tax-raising measure.

His half sister Molly is a big political spender as well. Last year she put up more than $44 million for Proposition 38, a pubic school funding counter-measure to Brown's Proposition 30. The Munger proposition lost.

In 2010, Munger, took on billionaire George Soros and his allies among state Democrats and unions in a battle over redistricting legislative seats, as reported that October by Bloomberg News.

Munger has mailed 660,000 DVDs of “Gerrymandering,” a 77- minute documentary, to regular voters in California in support of Proposition 20, which would give the state panel, created by a 2008 ballot measure, added power over congressional district lines.

With his wife, Charlotte Lowell, 53, they account for most of the $10.5 million raised to support the initiative, the California secretary of state’s website shows.

Soros has been an ally of Qualcomm founder Irwin Jacobs, the La Jolla billionaire who sponsored the failed mayoral candidacy of ex-GOP assemblyman-turned-Democrat Nathan Fletcher in November's primary.

The surprise appearance of the big-spending Munger on San Diego's political scene may signal the possibility that multimillion-dollar contributions from union foes will be spent here in the days leading up to the February run-off between Faulconer and Democratic city councilman David Alvarez, whose campaign has been backed by seven-figure union expenditures.

But Munger and his big money are not beloved by all in the GOP. As reported this past October by SFGate.com,conservative detractors have set up a blog called The Munger Games that blasts the heir as "the one-man maelstrom of money intent on remaking California Republicanism in his bow-tied image.”

“How much damage can one man do to a political party? In the case of Charles Munger, Jr. and the California Republican Party,” wrote an anonymous Munger Games poster, “the answer is: a lot.”

Munger’s money powered another successful ballot measure in 2010 that gave California a top-two primary. Conservative Republicans loathed both it and Prop. 20, saying they sapped the party of its strength.

As it is now, only 29 percent of California’s registered voters are Republican, the GOP holds no statewide offices, and is in the minority in both legislative chambers.

But Munger has been dishing out cash — at least $1.5 million through June 30 this year — to county party operations as part of the California GOP plan to rebuild itself from the ground up.

Comments

This story points out how California voters in general, and especially how San Diego voters are being played by those with huge assets, who are now spending mega bucks to help their chosen candidates get elected and control California's future! I'm sure to these Big Donors, it is a wonderful investment in their vision of San Diego's future, (which also happens to be deductible), since with only two candidates running, their odds of "winning" are 50-50, which is almost a sure bet as compared to playing the CA Lotto!

This election is especially important because since California "leads the way" for the rest of the US, having California do less leading in areas like abortion, same sex marriages, solar energy and medical marijuana, would also benefit the Ultra Wealthy's control of many other states that now seek the same rights as Californians, which are now already under their control!

Luckily, California's voters are hopefully not yet dumbed down enough to fall for things like Gerrymandering Prop 20 mentioned above, but one thing is for sure; since candidates get to keep donations they do not spend, both candidates running for Mayor in San Diego, will themselves be enriched by this election!

All those that remember San Diego as a real laid back California Surf City and primo Navy home base are now realizing that times have changed as Big Business and especially those with Mega Bucks are now running our City, controlling all our Media outlets (including the UT and many other local papers) and now even determining who will be our next Mayor, all thanks to the SCOTUS decision that allows Corp.s to donate to political campaigns!

In San Diego Politics, what used to be "one man, one vote" is now "one dollar, one vote" and to be able to stay in the race in order to get elected, candidates must now compete for donations! Once elected, all those big donations guarantee access to elected decision makers and all those that report to them. This access translates into political support for things like stadiums, big downtown projects and increases in Union wages. Everyone who "supported" the winning candidate knows that they too, will benefit from this election. This to a lessor degree, is what got San Diego into fiscal hot water in the past and now it is looking like it will happen again as both candidates talk about financing new Big Projects, instead of cutting costs and making City Government more accountable to voters.

Now, as ever more residents are priced out of living in San Diego, San Diego is becoming like another Hawaiian Island, a beautiful place for tourists to visit, but unless you are wealthy, each year makes it more difficult to live here and if we are not very lucky, this election will speed that process up.